News

Cool Hand Luke McKenzie Looks to Continue Aussie IRONMAN Excellence

The surprise star at last year’s IRONMAN World Championship hopes to add to the legacy of Australian stars in the sport.

IRONMAN World Championship runner-up Luke McKenzie steps out for the first time since his Kona heroics, with the hope he can add to the legacy of Australian stars in the sport. McKenzie is one of the headline acts in this weekend’s IRONMAN Asia Pacific Championship in Melbourne, where he takes on the likes of three-time IRONMAN World Champion Craig Alexander and a classy field.

Watching on from the sidelines, providing the live commentary, will be compatriot Greg Welch, the first non-American to triumph in Hawaii. Since 2007, when Chris McCormack triumphed for the first time, Australians have been a prominent part at the front of the field in Kona. McCormack, Alexander and Pete Jacobs have all joined the winners’ circle on the Big Island to become stars in their own Big Island down under.

For McKenzie 2013 was a breakthrough year. Before his win at last June’s IRONMAN Cairns, the Queenslander had won five IRONMAN titles, but his detractors suggested that he had yet to beat a world class field.

His win in Cairns came against a top-notch field that included two-time IRONMAN world champion Chris McCormack, 10-time IRONMAN New Zealand champion Cameron Brown and a host of quality Australians.

“Last year was game changing year for me. I made a commitment to myself to step it up and apply myself even more to my sport and it paid off. Training hard is just a small part of it. It really came down to a mental mindset and belief that I could compete and be at the top no matter what the race,” McKenzie said. “This year is going to be different because, I guess, there will be a certain level of expectation on me. I am really looking forward to the challenges ahead of me in 2014. I have it in me to be one of the world’s best Ironman triathletes. It’s cliche to say it, but you have to believe it.”

McKenzie is looking for a vastly improved result to his 2012 campaign when he failed to finish in Melbourne, an event that has become, in just three years, one of the premier races on the globe.

“The bike and run course suit me. The bike course looks pretty straight forward on paper, but it can be a tough one, especially if the wind is up. If I can utilise my bike strength and go onto that one way marathon with some time, I know I will be hard to catch.”

While the weekend is his start to the year, his big focus is looking past Melbourne to a return to Hawaii, where he hopes to go one better.